Douglas Williams

Born and raised in Merrill, Wisconsin, Douglas attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a B.S. in Music Education in 2000. He then moved to California where he met his beautiful wife, Wendy. Together they have four girls. The Jeep bug was the first to hit, culminating in racing of several King of the Hammers off-road races. He then became interested in helicopter flying and obtained his PPL/Rotorcraft-Helicopter certificate in December 2013, and then his Advanced Ground Instructor certificate. Douglas is the newsletter editor and Young Eagles ground instructor for EAA Chapter 845, Redlands, California.

I did not like the wind, and I let the chief pilot (not my instructor) know about it. He seemed confused. “The helicopter does not know the wind is blowing,” he would say. What?!? “The next time the wind is howling, I want to take you out.” Great, I thought. Suicide by helicopter.

As soon as I lifted off, the engine started coughing and sputtering! Something was not right… obviously. I set the ship back down (it most likely settled itself back down due to the lack of power and diminishing rotor RPM), and the engine sprang back to life. What?

Autorotations are maneuvers that sound and look really scary to the non-pilot. Before I started my training, I had watched many YouTube videos on the subject. I was pretty nervous about my first one. After all, this is an emergency procedure. And an emergency in an aircraft is never a good thing.

Write For Us

Did you know that most of the articles at Air Facts are written by readers like you? You do not have to be Richard Collins or Ernest Gann--simply a GA pilot with a story you'd share with friends sitting in the hangar. Share your experience on any aspect of GA transportation flying, whether for business or pleasure. Photos are an added bonus.

About Air Facts

Air Facts was first published in 1938 by Leighton Collins, dedicated to “the development of private air transportation.” It’s a different world now, and it’s a different Air Facts. Relaunched in 2011 as an online journal, Air Facts still champions, educates, informs and entertains pilots worldwide with real-world flying experiences.

Email Newsletter

Join thousands of other pilots - sign up for our informative email newsletter. It's completely free, and we will not share your information with anyone.